Yesterday homeschooling activist lawyer Chris Klicka died after a 15 year battle with multiple sclerosis. Klicka was hired by the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) in 1985 before it had really gotten off of the ground, and he helped grow it into the powerhouse advocacy organization that it is today. In my book on homeschooling history Klicka gets extensive treatment because of his central role at HSLDA.

As you can see from the in memoriam page posted by HSLDA, Klicka was a pious Christian and a devoted family man. He leaves behind his wife Tracy (read her journal describing Chris’ last days here) and their seven children, all of whom were homeschooled. Though many people with whom I spoke in the course of my research do not share all of Klicka’s political or theological opinions, he was universally regarded as a generous and compassionate human being.

Klicka’s death is a real loss for the movement and a milestone in the history of homeschooling. I tend to interpret the history of the homeschooling movement thus far as having had three phases. Phase one was the era of Holt and the Moores. Phase three is the recent trend toward a more mainstream and hybridized movement. It would not be an overstatement to call phase two, when HSLDA was the dominant force in American homeschooling, the era of Chris Klicka.